Anderson Silva Pondering Fights At Welterweight

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has already fought twice in the UFC’s light heavyweight division and talked about fighting the big boys in the heavyweight division. He’s not stopping there. Now he’s thinking about trying to make 170 lbs. and possibly fighting Georges St. Pierre in GSP’s natural weight class.

[Silva’s] not the type to call out an opponent and challenge a champion in another division, but he said after a news conference Wednesday that he is seriously considering a drop to 170 pounds for two fights.

One he’d take to see if he could successfully make the welterweight limit, and a second would potentially be for a Superfight with champion Georges St. Pierre.

“I’d like to test myself and I always love to take on new challenges,” Silva said of his thoughts about a drop to 170 pounds from the middleweight limit of 185. “It’s not that I want to go fight Georges St. Pierre for his title. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s the reigning champion, the absolute champion, in that weight category. But I just want to test myself and see how I’d do at that weight.”

Furthermore, when asked if he was interested in eventually holding the title in all four weight classes, Silva didn’t rule it out.

“I understand how big that would be,” Silva said of a run at all four belts. “I already have [three] titles [in the UFC, Shooto and Cage Rage] and it would be a great thing to try to accomplish. Only time will tell what will happen. I would like to try to go to do that, but I’ve had success by focusing on what I have to do and nothing else. I just take one step at a time.”

And to think, this time last year he was talking about retirement. My how quickly that changed.